Support for Abolishing ICE Hits Record High in New Poll - Truthout

*Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with * a donation.

A new poll shows a majority of Americans support calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Economist/YouGov survey, conducted from February 27 through March 2, asked respondents whether they had any confidence in ICE. Only 39 percent said they had a “great deal” or “some” confidence in the agency, while 56 percent said they had “only a little” or “none at all” in ICE to conduct its work.

Most Americans are ready to see ICEdisbanded, the poll found. Only 39 percent of respondents in the survey said they oppose efforts to abolish the agency. Meanwhile, 50 percent said they were supportive of the demand to “abolish ICE,” the highest level of support seen inYouGov polling history.

The polling data suggest that, while operations in cities like Minneapolis have purportedly wound down, support for ending ICE remains high, and has increased over steadily since the beginning of this year.

Opposition to ICE jumped following the killings of Renee Good and Alex PrettiDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) agents while participating in non-violent protest against the department’s presence in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Good was killed by an agent from ICE, while Pretti was killed by a Border Patrol agent.

Support is also high for reforms to ICE, too, including requiring agents to wear uniforms that identify themselves (75 percent support). Respondents also opposed current ICE practices, including policies that allow agents to wear masks to conceal their identities (59 percent opposed allowing them to mask). Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe ICE has engaged in excessive force, the poll also found.

Despite high support for reforms, such changes are unlikely to reduce ICE’s ability to harm others, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, an assistant professor of geography and African American & Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky, wrote in an op-ed for Truthout last month.

“Such an approach has proven over and over again to not stem the tide of police violence but to validate the centrality of policing in U.S. society,” Pelot-Hobbs wrote in Truthout, adding that:

We should not downplay the fact that ICE is now the largest law enforcement agency in the nation, with an unprecedented $170 billion increase in funding over the next four years. Not only does this funding intensify the U.S. government’s ability to terrorize, detain, and deport, it also cements the centrality of immigration enforcement to the infrastructure of the U.S. state.

“Democrats should be taking heed of frontline organizers and activists who have long contested the everyday and extraordinary violence of immigration enforcement. … Calls to defund and abolish ICE make it clear that there is no stopping the violence of ICE without a radical transformation of the U.S. approach to immigration,” wrote Pelot-Hobbs. “We must end the policing of anyone: immigrant or citizen, guilty or innocent. There is no other way forward.”

Press freedom is under attack

As Trump cracks down on political speech, independent media is increasingly necessary.

Truthout produces reporting you won’t see in the mainstream: journalism from the frontlines of global conflict, interviews with grassroots movement leaders, high-quality legal analysis and more.

Our work is possible thanks to reader support. Help Truthout catalyze change and social justice — make a tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation today.